Delivering reviews of new food products and restaurants of the North Somerset (Weston-Super-Mare) area.

Menu

Brewers Fayre Spring Menu 2017 (with Pictures)

ONE OF the chained restaurants to arguably add the most things to their latest Spring menus is Brewers Fayre. Again there’s a real attempt at adding new styles of Burger to the menu as well a number of different things that Brewers Fayre haven’t necessarily done before. Like with the other posts in the series, this will get updated with the more meals we try and all pictures, unless otherwise stated, are taken from the Weston-super-Mare restaurant,

Starters

Out of the two new starters, one’s a real classic that’s always going to be popular and the other one sounds really nice but was actually a little disappointing. You can now have Melting Brie Bites but, for nearly a fiver, you’d probably expect to be met with more than just three bites. The ones we had were a little overcooked as well so the breadcrumbs were very crispy and that took away some of the flavour of the Brie. If they were cooked to be a little lighter then it may have been really nice with Brie just oozing out and becoming stringy but unfortunately that wasn’t the case here. There’s a pot of Chutney to go with the bites to add a sweeter, fruity taste. The Chutney doesn’t look too appetising as it’s rather a squidgy clump, but it is actually really nice. So although these sound quite tempting on the menu, they are a little underwhelming. Price: £4.99.

The other is a Chicken Liver Pate dish. Pate has always been a popular starter and this one will continue to be. Again though this wasn’t the freshest tasting Pate which was a real shame. You can tell the freshness of the Pate by how moist it is and this one was really dry and almost flavourless. The dish comes with a couple of slices of Bread with an ample sized serving of Butter and there’s also a pot of Chutney which is desperately needed to add some juiciness and flavour to the Pate. Despite this, it will undoubtedly be a popular starter and hopefully other incarnations of this dish will prove why Pate is such a favourite. Price: £4.19.

Mains

One of Brewers Fayre’s newest Tasty Alternatives comes in the form of a Chicken & Chorizo Pie. This dish is under 600 calories so there’s plenty of room for pudding without feeling guilty. A really nice twist to this Pie though is that is in encased in Filo Pastry rather than Shortrcrust. This makes the Pie a bit lighter and actually looks more aesthetically pleasing. Inside are lots of tender and juicy chunks of Chicken with pieces of Chorizo that add a bit of heat and flavour to the Pie. Fortunately, it’s not a really hot Chorizo so you don’t get overpowered with any sort of burn. Instead of Chips, this meal comes with some Buttered New Potatoes and a lightly dressed Salad. Price: £10.19.

Everyone at the moment is trying to take the standard Steak dish and add something to it to make it original and a bigger draw for Steak lovers to visit them. Brewers Fayre are no different with their new 14oz Rib-Eye Steak. A part of their Taste of Tennessee range, this sizeable Steak is unsurprisingly the most expensive meal on the menu and £1 dearer than their ordinary 14oz Rib-Eye Steak which is also still available. The Steak, cooked to how you like it, is coated in a Jack Daniel’s Whisky glaze which gives it a smokiness as well as a slight kick. The Steak is then topped with crispy fried Onions to add another texture and a bit more flavour. The meal is then finished off with Sweet Potato Fries and Coleslaw. Being a bit more expensive, it may be harder to justify paying for it but it is well worth trying as the Steak was really flavourful and the dish is just really satisfying. Price: £16.99.

The big emphasis across the board this season is on Burgers and Brewers Fayre have released a Brewers Burger Collection. There’s four Burgers all aimed at being a bit gourmet and offering something different to your standard Burger. The Black and Blue Burger is not necessarily a new concept but Brewers Fayre have done a really nice job with it. You get two quarter pound Beef Burgers topped with Bacon and melting Blue Cheese with the usual Tomato, Lettuce and Red Onion sat in between the Sesame Seeded Bun. The meal is served with Onion Rings, Chips and Coleslaw. There’s perhaps not much Black involved other than the charring of the Burgers but the Blue Cheese is a really nice option. If you don’t like the sour tang from Blue Cheese then this might put you off, but it does give the Burger a really distinct flavour. The best thing to do with Blue Cheese is definitely melting it and it just works really well here. Price: £10.99.

For the Chicken lovers there’s a couple of options to choose from in this new collection. The Cluck ‘n’ Ale Burger is a bit of a bemusing one. The Chicken is Beer-Battered and resembles a Fish more than a Chicken and it’s that mind memory that gets you when you bite into it and it’s tender Chicken and not fluffy Fish, which causes the surprise. This Burger is topped with Cheese and spicy Mayo which actually tastes a bit like Burger Sauce as it’s tangy more than it is spicy. The Burger is completed in the same way as the Black and Blue Burger with all the same trimmings. Obviously the Beer Batter is the Ale part of the Burger but it doesn’t really add any flavour, just a crunch, and maybe a bit more could have been done to give this Burger a bit of an Ale tang or Sauce. But this is still a nice offering and worth trying. Price: £10.49.

Desserts

A new sharing Dessert from Brewers Fayre is in the form of their Jaffa Pudding. It’s essentially a giant Jaffa Cake with a melted Chocolate top smothered in Chocolate Sauce and topped with Vanilla Ice Cream. It’s a very tangy pudding and the melted Chocolate makes it really rich but also a bit sickly. It’s a really simple Dessert that’s actually really quite nice. It’s apparently designed to serve four people but in reality it’s far too small to satisfy a table of four, it’s easily enough for two to have or could even be a nice challenge for one to take on. Price: £6.79.

For the Sundae lovers, there’s a new Salted Caramel, Brownie and Popcorn Sundae to try. There’s a lot of elements to it and it encompasses all of the sweet treats that you need in it. The scoops of Ice Cream are met with pieces of Chocolate Brownie and Popcorn to add varying soft and crunchy textures. There’s Chocolate and Salted Caramel sauces poured all over the Dessert and at the bottom there’s more Brownie pieces as well as a Biscuit base. For good measure, the Sundae is topped with White Chocolate pieces. It’s a really sweet toothed Sundae but the only criticism is that all of the Brownie Pieces and Popcorn were at the top with a little at the bottom, meaning that the middle is just all Ice Cream. A better distribution would make this Sundae irresistible. Price: £4.79.

There’s also a couple of new boozy Desserts that are sure to whet the appetite of many. The new Raspberry and Prosecco Cheesecake offers an array of flavours that mix extremely well together. The Biscuit-based Cheesecake is topped with Raspberries to give it a nice fruity tang to oppose the Vanilla Cheesecake and it’s finished off with a Raspberry and Prosecco Compote. The Raspberry gives the Compote a nice colour but the main flavour comes from the Prosecco. There’s obviously no fizz but there is that fizzy, boozy flavour that Prosecco gives you and again it just works really well with the Cheesecake. Price: £4.49.